Queensland election 2017: Hanson’s ‘crazy policy’ to blame
Fraser Anning blames Pauline Hanson’s policy of preferencing against sitting members for the likely return of the Palaszczuk government.
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Queensland state election wash-up. Labor Premier Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is looking to secure the 47 seats she needs for an absolute majority. Counting will resume today with 13 seats undecided.
Key developments
• Labor has pulled ahead in a key seat, as pre-poll counting continues
• Cracks in the Coalition are appearing amid post-poll finger pointing
• Tony Abbott has contradicted the PM on the federal factors in the poll result
• The election result was a brutal dose of reality, Campbell Newman writes
Rachel Baxendale 5.55pm: Anning blames Ashby
Senator Anning has blamed Senator Hanson’s Chief of Staff James Ashby for the “crazy” preference arrangement over which he had attacked One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
“Now the One Nation Western Australian electoral failure has been followed by a worse result in Queensland, I only hope that Pauline realises the so-called Svengali who has guided her to both disasters is not the political savant he has been made out to be,” he said.
Rachel Baxendale 5.15pm: One Nation feud intensifies
The public feud between estranged One Nation senator Fraser Anning and party leader Pauline Hanson has intensified, after Senator Anning blamed Senator Hanson’s “crazy policy” of preferencing against sitting members for the likely return of the Palaszczuk Labor government.
Follow the fallout in our Queensland election blog
Senator Hanson hit back at his criticism, reminding Senator Anning that as the third candidate on One Nation’s Queensland senate ticket at last year’s federal election he only received 19 personal votes, blaming him for the party’s poor showing in Saturday’s poll, and defending Mr Roberts.
Senator Anning, who replaced disqualified former senator Malcolm Roberts, has not formally resigned from One Nation.
However, he has been at odds with the party since his first day earlier this month, when he refused Senator Hanson’s demands to replace several staff members who had previous worked for and fallen out with Mr Roberts.
Senator Hanson compared Mr Anning’s 19 votes with 250,126 One Nation received in Queensland at the last federal election and more than 320,469 across 61 seats on Saturday, on early counts.
“Malcolm Roberts has successfully taken his personal Senate vote of 77 to over 6,217, securing 26 per cent of the primary vote in the seat of Ipswich, proving his deserved success as a One Nation candidate,” Senator Hanson said.
“Labor ran a very successful scare campaign accusing One Nation of ‘chaos’ off the back of Mr Anning announcing he’d be taking the One Nation senate seat as an independent, just weeks before the Queensland election.
“We note Mr Anning has removed all reference to One Nation from his Senate letterhead and refused to contact or meet with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson since he stormed out of a meeting.”
Rachel Baxendale 2.30pm: Hanson’s ‘crazy policy’ to blame for Labor win
Estranged One Nation senator Fraser Anning has blamed party leader Pauline Hanson’s “crazy policy” of preferencing against sitting members for the likely return of the Palaszczuk Labor government.
Senator Anning, who replaced disqualified former senator Malcolm Roberts, has not formally resigned from One Nation, but has been at odds with the party since his first day earlier this month, when he refused Senator Hanson’s demands to replace several staff members who had previous worked for and fallen out with Mr Roberts.
1.45pm: Premier back on deck
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has launched straight back into work, despite not yet claiming victory in the state election.
With the vote count still underway, Ms Palaszczuk, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad and Local Government Minister Mark Furner have met the Local Government association of Queensland.
They discussed the ongoing recovery from Cyclone Debbie, as well as the Labor government’s Works for Queensland program and the Sunshine Coast’s International Broadband Submarine Cable Project.
The premier said it was important to build on the work that was being done before the state election.
“(Tuesday) marks eight months since Cyclone Debbie crossed the Queensland coast and I thought it was important that today we got an update ... about any outlying issues that need to be resolved,” the premier told reporters. The government is still in caretaker mode, but under the conventions the premier can still act in an official capacity, so long as she does not make any decisions “which would bind an incoming government and limit its freedom of action”.
1.15pm: ‘One Nation votes helped Labor’
Malcolm Turnbull has held One Nation voters partially responsible for the return of a Labor government in Queensland.
Outspoken federal Nationals MP George Christensen on Sunday apologised to One Nation voters in north and central Queensland, saying the LNP had let them down. But the Prime Minister said One Nation voters needed to realise their preferences had returned the Palaszczuk government.
“Everyone is entitled to cast their vote as they see fit, but the voting for One Nation in the Queensland election has only assisted the Labor Party,” Mr Turnbull told reporters at Port Kembla, NSW, today.
“One Nation voters, I want to say to them: ‘Your votes for One Nation have assisted Annastacia Palaszczuk’.”
The point would be made at the next federal election that if voters wanted a coalition government they must vote for the Liberal or Nationals or LNP parties, he added. Asked whether the state election result indicated public backing for a royal commission into the banks - which federal Labor supports - Mr Turnbull said: “That was not even remotely the issue in the Queensland election.”
12.45pm: ‘A good opposition leader’
Federal Attorney-General George Brandis says Queensland’s Liberal National Party needs to have “a very honest discussion with itself” but it’s not yet time for a political divorce.
Senator Brandis also defended LNP leader Tim Nicholls amid speculation there’ll be a change of leader, saying he doesn’t deserve to shoulder all the blame for the party’s election result.
“Tim Nichols has been a good opposition leader,” he said.
In the event of an LNP loss, Senator Brandis said: “I think everyone who was involved in this campaign needs to have a very honest look at themselves, rather than trying to put all the blame on one person.”
The LNP is yet to formally accept Labor is on track for a majority but the merged party is already talking about what needs to change after One Nation split the conservatives in Saturday’s poll.
Nationals elders have been questioning the merger of Queensland’s Liberal and National parties almost a decade ago, suggesting it robbed the traditionally rural party of its true identity.
Sarah Elks 12.15pm: Labor pulls ahead in key seat
Labor candidate for the coalmining and cane-growing seat of Burdekin Mike Brunker hopes his could be the electorate that delivers majority government for Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Mr Brunker, a former coalminer, mayor of Bowen and CFMEU official, has pulled ahead on primary votes in the north Queensland electorate, which is held by the LNP’s Dale Last.
It’s a tight three-candidate race for the seat, between Mr Last, Mr Brunker, and One Nation Deputy Leader Sam Cox.
After pre-poll votes in the mining towns of Moranbah and Middlemount were counted today, along with Bowen - where Mr Brunker was the mayor - he’s at 36 per cent of primary vote, ahead of the LNP’s Mr Last on 31.62 per cent and Mr Cox on 29.6 per cent.
And he’s expected to do well when the pre-poll votes from Collinsville, where he’s originally from, are tallied this afternoon.
“We might be the seat that delivers the government power,” Mr Brunker said, adding it would depend on the flow of preferences.
He said if he managed to pick up about 40 per cent of One Nation preferences, he hoped he would be able to secure the seat.
11.30am: Katter aims for key role
Robbie Katter hasn’t given up hope of playing kingmaker, or rather Queenmaker, once again, moving to unite a disparate collection of crossbenchers following Saturday’s poll, AAP reports.
The Katter’s Australia Party state leader has reached out to independents and One Nation to discuss presenting a united front should Labor fall short of its expected majority in Queensland’s parliament.
KAP, which is set to claim up to three seats following the poll, was a key player in the last parliament, after guaranteeing supply to Annastacia Palaszczuk’s minority government.
10.20am: Contender for Nicholls job?
Former Newman government minister David Crisafulli won’t say if he’ll accept the LNP leadership if Tim Nicholls goes, AAP reports.
But that hasn’t stopped the new member for Broadwater outlining his old-fashioned vision for Queensland’s new parliament, saying “cheesed off” voters need a government and an opposition that will work together for the greater good.
“I’m absolutely not going to talk about it (the LNP’s leadership) while we don’t know the composition of the parliament,” the former local government minister told ABC radio, after re-entering politics in Saturday’s poll.
10am: Christensen warned on ‘blame game’
Federal Liberals have told a Nationals backbencher to pull his head in after he blamed the prime minister for the high One Nation vote in the Queensland election, AAP reports.
The Nationals have used the election result - likely to return a Labor government - to reiterate the need for their party to have a strong and distinct identity, separate from their coalition partner.
Outspoken Nationals MP George Christensen on Sunday apologised to One Nation voters in north and central Queensland for the LNP letting them down. The One Nation vote was higher than the LNP’s in every electorate bar one - within his federal seat of Dawson.
Senior Queensland Liberal George Brandis understands Mr Christensen is upset. “But what I would remind him is at the end of the day, what the Australian people want is for governments to get on and deliver for them,” the Attorney-General told reporters in Canberra today. “They don’t want to see an endless symposium on Queensland electoral politics.”
Liberal MP Warren Entsch, who holds the far north Queensland seat of Leichhardt, warned Mr Christensen he risked disenfranchising his other constituents and he would be better off looking out for everyone’s needs or explaining his reasons why not.
“But to go out there and say I’m going to apologise to One Nation, I’m going to apologise to one other group, I don’t think is wise,” Mr Entsch told ABC radio. Mr Christensen said the coalition had to listen more, work harder and do better at winning people’s trust, and that began with the Turnbull government’s leadership and policy direction.
Mr Entsch had a blunt response: “George, you are actually part of the Turnbull government.” Senator Brandis echoed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s insistence that overall, the Queensland election was fought on state issues and there were no wider implications.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said clearly the rest of their party didn’t agree.
“If Mr Turnbull thinks there are absolutely no federal lessons from the Queensland election, then he’s just living in la-la land,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Sam Buckingham-Jones 8.30am: History lesson for LNP
Former Queensland premier Rob Borbidge says it is “incomprehensible” there would be any deal or association between the Coalition and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party, and that Saturday’s election result is an example of history repeating itself.
Mr Borbidge, a former leader of the Queensland branch of the National Party, lost his premiership two years after he assumed the role in 1996 due to the LNP’s favourable preferencing of One Nation.
“The LNP just has to accept the fact that any association with One Nation is absolutely toxic, particularly in south east Queensland. It happened in 1998, it happened in 2001 and it happened on Saturday night,” he told the ABC this morning.
“It is totally incomprehensible to me that in this day and age we go anywhere near One Nation. They directed preferences against every sitting LNP member.”
7.45am: Palaszczuk confident
Annastacia Palaszczuk says she will be back at work today, confident of winning the majority she needs in the 93-seat parliament, AAP reports.
Labor leads in four of the undecided electorates, which would be enough to get it across the line. However, a definitive result could still be several days away, as many seats will come down to preferences on pre-poll and postal votes, which are up significantly on the 2015 poll.
More than 800,000 people voting before election day, according to the Queensland Electoral Commission.
A spokeswoman said absentee votes, including those lodged in nine overseas booths, also proved a logistical problem with those needed to be transported to their electorates before they can be counted.
The count has also been complicated by One Nation’s decision to preference the Greens last and all sitting MPs second last, and the reintroduction of compulsory preferential voting.
Of the undecided seats, Labor looks likely to claim Aspley in Brisbane’s north and Gaven on the Gold Coast, as well as Cook in far north Queensland. It is also neck and neck for second place with the Greens in the inner-Brisbane seat of Maiwar, a position that, if retained, should see the party wrest the seat from Shadow Treasurer Scott Emerson on preferences.
However, it has fallen behind in Bonney, on the Gold Coast and Pumicestone, north of Brisbane, which it had been hopeful of winning.
It also appeared set to lose Mirani in central Queensland to One Nation, while Townsville remained on a knife edge and the seat of Rockhampton, long a Labor stronghold, was at risk of falling to independent Margaret Strelow. Meanwhile, Katter’s Australia Party looks likely to pick up the seat of Hinchinbrook from the LNP although the party is ahead in Whitsunday, with Burdekin still too close to call.
What’s making news
• Australian politics has been rocked by another swing against the Coalition in a clear threat to the PM and his government.
• Paul Kelly writes that the election result was a failure of the LNP.
• The result was bad for Queensland, bad for Australia and a sobering result for the major parties and One Nation, Campbell Newman writes.
• Pauline Hanson’s party could finish without a seat in Qld.
• Annastacia Palaszczuk has shelved her ‘no deals’ vow, as she aims to form government.
• The Premier has created political history, Peter Beattie writes.
• A win is a win, not matter how close, Graham Richardson writes.
• Queenslanders have spoken, but it’s not clear what they have said, John Wanna writes.
• Memo Malcolm Turnbull: One Nation has again taken Liberal-Nationals votes.
• With seats still in play, Labor is in the box seat to claim victory.
• Former Nationals senator Ron Boswell says the conservative coalition isn’t working.
• The controversial Adani coalmine proved an electoral opportunity for the Premier.
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